General put defence in the line of fire

AS British troop deaths in Afghanistan reached 100 this year, ex-UK army chief Sir Mike Jackson, told a Liverpool Roscoe lecture audience that he “very much” hoped defence would be an issue at the next general election.

AS British troop deaths in Afghanistan reached 100 this year, ex-UK army chief Sir Mike Jackson, told a Liverpool Roscoe lecture audience that he “very much” hoped defence would be an issue at the next general election.

Let me assure him, in view of the government's dire failure to “sell” the war to the public, that it will be.

Jackson, key to the Kuwait and Kosovo campaigns, and chief of staff during the Iraq war, criticised the US for this week setting a withdrawal date of 2011.

He resurrected the terrorists' chilling warning to the west: “You have the watch – but we have the time.”

And he introduced his own line: “We are in the midst of a battle of ideas and perceptions for our very souls.”

He rightly argued, the velvet glove of diplomacy was of no use if it did not contain an iron fist.

But while insisting that the new fight was over “attitudes and perceptions” requiring “patience and endurance,” the one thing he failed to touch on – or be asked about – was the government's gross lack of a home-based PR campaign to boost troop morale.

And there was only passing reference to the overdue need for a 25-30 year strategic defence review, the last being in 1998.

And for those anticipating the appearance of Tony Blair before the Chilcot Inquiry, he noted that the former prime minister had become used to military intervention producing positive results well before gunning for Saddam Hussein.

Interesting. Might even imply that our leader had become a tad too trigger happy.